Battleship
by TankCommissar
Summary: Have always been a fan of W40k, SoaSE, Jack Sparrow and Star Trek, one day I think why not making a ship battle story in Elsword too. Not that type of ship though, we already have too much of than kind.


_Altera island's evening came sooner than anywhere else, simply because it had been floating on the sky since time unmemorable, and the sun would sank down below its feet when it was just sunset time on the landmass surface. A gigantic, easily the size-of-a-city mass of rock and dirt was excavated and lifted on the air by a massive metal superstructure engine - the so-called Altera Core. No one knew how it came to exist, nor the purpose behind the creation of the Altera island. But we knew there were actually inhabitants on the floating island: first was a race of bipedal race of mole-men called the Ponggos, and the second is an ancient race of sentient machines which was known as the Nasods. The Ponggos had been living peacefully until recently the Nasods had waken up from centuries of hibernating and began to attack the Ponggos and pushing them out of their living areas. Moreover, an unknown space pirate gang, who traveled by a massive flying warship - The Black Crow, came to harass the poor Ponggos..._

"Code Corvus-PROTO III! The King bade your presence!" - said a robotic voice through The Black Crow's commanding bridge's radio.

A dark-skinned human figure stood up from the armchair and slowly walking to the controlling machinery platform of the ship and replied back:

"Roger that, I'm on my way".

Minutes later, he was on the transporting plane and took off from The Black Crow. The man had a vacant look on his face, and he let the servant bot combing his dark, spiky hair without a comment. He took some snacks being served by the bot, and his eyes were looking vaguely at the scene outside of the window. He was in a negligent state at his best, however sometimes his eyes could be seen showing some sparks of consciousness and awareness, however it usually lasted for some seconds and then his eyes would went back to the vacant and tiresome state. A large part of his left hand was made of big, pointy metal claws, with many bionic parts enhancing it...

The transport plane took him out of the diameter of the floating island, then descending downward until it was at the bottom-most of the floating island, from there it flew into the hangar bay of the Altera Core, beside a dozen of other aircraft of every types. At there, the so-called Code Corvus-PROTO III was escorted straight to the innermost chamber, through many layers of elaborate defensive mechanisms and Nasod guard units. They stopped at a thick, big metal door, and suddenly, the door split into two pieces and the dazzling light embraced Code Corvus.

In front of him was a huge behemoth figure, a metallic Nasod the size of a large town square and tens of meter high. One servant Nasod accompanying Code Corvus shouted:

"Behold, the King of Nasods!".

There were no echoes thanks to the vast size of the chamber. The King Nasod then turned his body 180 degree to acknowledge Code Corvus, then turning right so that his hip was facing them. Looking at his right side, King Nasod spoke:

"Elite Commander, I have a mission for you..." - said him while slowly clapping his hands.

The party who was accompanying Code Corvus left the room. King Nasod then turning and looking straight at him and spoke:

"My son, would us Nasods be able to regain our status, and rebuilding our glorious ancient civilization or not, can we triumph over our nemesis - Mankind, forever after or not, can our lineages have the rights to step out of the dark days of infamy and centuries of evading like a rat or not, it shall be determined by the accomplishment or failure of your mission! ".

"I want you to venture into the Velder kingdom and reclaiming back the knowledge of ancient Nasod creation!"

"I meant the Nasods that were made to be sentient, like me and my royal court, not the crude and lowly labor robots made by Velder..."

"AAARRGGH!" - suddenly Code Corvus-PROTO III yelled in a rare wrathful manner. His right hand was holding his head because of King Nasod's repeatedly use of the word "Velder" had brought him flashbacks of hurtful memories. Agonizing in pain, his human side had risen again, he had remembered all: the day he was betrayed by the man he trusted most, the day he was falsely accused, jailed and waiting execution, the night he saw by his naked eyes his closest comrades and his beloved future wife who fought to free him and be barbarically slayed.

"CURSE YOU VELDER! AND YOU!" - He pointed straight at King Nasod's face - " I...I am not your Code Corvus or any goddamn Nasod name, I AM RA...VEN! HAHAHA YES! To hell with your hierarchy and aristocracy, don't speak like you're anything better than them!" - Raven shouted in agitation.

"Code Corvus-PROTO III, suppression mode!" - King Nasod interrupted Raven's words.

The artificial left hand of Raven began to act like it had a mind of its own... Yes, as you may had guessed, the Nasod hand of Raven could think and act by its own, and it was safe to say that Code Corvus-PROTO III was in fact the name of the AI that was controlling Raven's mind and body integrated into the artificial hand of him, and Raven was merely a puppet of the Nasod's AI to make use of his knowledge in warfare and enemy of the Nasods - mankind and especially Kingdom of Velder.

A drone materialized before Raven. That was part of the control program of the Nasod hand. The drone looked like a big yellow orb, surrounded by many sharp black pikes. It began to mercilessly hijacking Raven's head with its high energy currents while Raven was groaning and gnashing his teeth in vain...

Raven was in great pain when his human consciousness was brutally taken away by the Nasod hand's computing activities. When Raven gave up his mind and body, he was dragged to the tactical command room to discuss and learning the plan of recovering the records of knowledge about the secrets of Nasod the Velder was possessing. Then he was returned to The Black Crow late at night.

Raven couldn't sleep because he was too exhausted and stressed, despite the Nasod hand forced him to. His head was in a turbulent state to the point of near insanity. Hours later he finally managed to reluctantly control his legs by his own will and all he could thought of was to threw himself out of The Black Crow and die like the fates of his fallen comrades. But he felled to the floor and fainted before he could even get out of his bedroom...

The invading fleet took off the day after. The flagship was The Black Crow, which was armed with multiple broadside ordnance and missile launchers, plus prototype ad hoc energy shielding system which was installed in order of King Nasod. On board it was the forces of The Black Crow mercenary company, and a force of fighting Nasod types including Nasod Scout type, elite Nasod Guard : Shield type and assault Nasod type.

Knock knock... Knock knock...

Someone was knocking at Raven's room door.

"Captain, it's time! Have you waken up yet?" - the voice at the other side of the door.

"Name?" - Raven replied back in an evenly tone.

"It's me, Tom, captain Raven!" - the voice.

"Tom huh, but what Tom, are you that Tommy guy the quartermaster?" - Raven replied.

BANG! - The door was kicked open.

Standing there was a big man with a Black Crow gang gas filter on his face and wearing Black Crow's recruit clothes. The Black Crow did recruit once upon a time, when they needed new faces to replace the ones that died in combat.

The recruit went to the room then slamming the door closen in a hurry, and not stopping there, he carried the Raven's heavy working desk to block the door, making the desk's drawers being ejected out and scattering the paperworks everywhere on the floor.

Not flinched, thanks to the control of the Nasod hand's AI, Raven just observing the weird recruit, "He doesn't look like much of a threat after all!" - the AI told itself.

"Well?" - the AI made Raven saying that.

"Well..." - the recruit replied while unmasking himself and slowly turning his back to face Raven.

Upon learning the face of the intruder that messed up his room, Raven was like petrified. How can it be, one of his closest comrade that he thought was long dead before, his right-hand and second in command of the former Crow Mercenary Knights troop...

"Th...omp...son!" - Raven whispered.

"YES! IT'S ME! Thompson Kodiak! My friend, I can't believe it, what have they done to YOU?!" - Thompson howling while stepping toward Raven and shaking his shoulders as a sign of joy.

"I...I'm..." - Raven was moved when he could meet his close friend again, that meant...

"Tom...please...KILL ME!" - Raven strove to speak as his own will.

"WHAT?!" - Tom stared at Raven in disbelief.

"I'm...not Raven...anymore, please...end...my suffering!" - Raven begged for his dead.

"What the heck..." - Tom was terrified by Raven's words, and his sentence was interrupted by a knocking sound of someone outside of the door. He quickly drawing his mace which he used to carry behind his back and turning to the door. Seconds later he sensed his throat was being strangled by an iron grip hand...

"Ouch...ouch...!?"

"Kaptin, oversleeping again? Your breakfast is next to the door, try not to step on it when you leave the room hahaha..." - voice of the serving grunt.

"HYAH!" Tom wrestled Raven over his shoulder, his back hit the floor hard

"You're sure to having gained weights eh? But you don't look fa...AAAAHHHH!" - Tom felt to the ground thanks to Raven's sweep kick.

"Nice try, but you have came 10 years too soon to beat me, buddy!" - Raven's neck was locked hard by Tom's legs...

Raven was knocked out, but the Nasod hand's AI had decided that Tom was so great a threat to itself that it materialized and performed shapeshifting into an enormous spearhead and tracking Tom down by plunging itself at him. Tom only had enough time to shield himself by a chair.

"Raven, why you want to kill me!?" - Tom yelled while his cheek was having a deep cut by the sliding Nasod core.

Raven urged himself to stand up, and his anger gave him the will to control his very own body again. "NOW OR NEVER!" - Raven's thought.

He stood up slowly but surely, stretching his Nasod hand and it began to rotating very fast and forming a giant drill. He plunged himself at the incoming Nasod core rushing to brainwash him again.

"HAAAHHH!" - Raven slammed his Nasod hand down just in time to intercept the Nasod core. It crashed down to the floor noisily, only to be brutally drilled through by Raven's Mega Drill Break technique, the sounds of breaking metal and crumbling wooden floor were sure to be chilly. When withdrawing his hand the floor was cut through and he could see the kitchen room beneath...

"Eh, Boss? Me? Believe me, I didn't eat anything!" - the murmuring of the serving grunt guy we had the honor to knew before, he hurriedly wiping his sticky lips while looking through the newly hole on the floor.

"Dude, care to explain me about this shirt?!" - Tom questioned.

"Hmm, It's sure to feel good when I can be me..." - Raven relaxed and wriggling his very own body.

 _After briefly explaining to the surprised Thompson Kodiak, it was Raven's turn to hear Tom's story. Tommy's surviving story was so exaggerated that Raven could only believe in one-tenth part of it, that generally he played death and escaped in the shadow of the night..._

Interrupting the brag of Tom, Raven asked:

"So, did any other one beside you survived? Harris, John one-legged, old Alston, and...and Seris?"

"I don't think so, pal" - Tom sorely replied - "Have you forgotten, Harris was stabbed through his throat, Alston was slashed into pieces, and Blake - poor Blake, he was downed by a rain of arrows. And Seris, you were the one that knew about this the most, she... cut her throat before your eyes so the Velder's thugs wouldn't be able to seize her!"

Raven was speechless...

The room was knocked the third time of the day, this time was from the battleship's navigator:

"Captain, we have arrived!"

"Okay, tell the troops to hold until my next order..." - Raven said - "You can please now".

Waiting for the navigator to go far enough, Raven asked Tom:

"What do we do now? This battle is meaningless to me, and I don't have anywhere to go..."

"Did you know, Velder was just invaded..." - Tom said cautiously.

"By Hamel? I think the inversion is more logical." - said the surprised Raven.

"No, by the demons, they burst out of the palace and seized the capital easily like robbing a kid's candies..." - Tom.

"The demons? Like in folktales ? I thought they aren't exist, are they? You said they burst out inside the palace, they can fly?" - Raven was confused.

"Like hell if I know how, but the demons do exist, I saw them by my eyes, and the capital felt in just one night!" - Tom patiently explained.

"But I won't fight for Velder anymore, that rotten bunch of bureaucracy and aristocracy deserve that!" - Raven coldly argue.

"Then what about the people of Velder, the honest, common people that you once vowed to protect? Your homeland, when your ancestors and kin live and die, where our comrades were buried..." - Tom coolly replied.

"You meant you know where Seris and our comrades were buried?" - Raven stood up in astonishment.

Tom slowly nodded...

 _At the graveyard in Velder's suburb..._

 _"Seris, I have through many tragedies in my life, but nothing can be compared to the day I lost you. Even more grievous, you lost your very own life just to buy me another day to live... I was ashamed, now I can't look at your face anymore, it was my fault from the start. Please forgive me, I couldn't do anything to save you, but I swear I will revenge for you, I will drag those who made you lost your live to hell with me, because I would be there anyway, and you, you can live in eternal on Heaven, only through that can I repay my debt I owed you. Rest in peace, the love of my life..."_

 _"Comrades, you were my brother in arms, we were not blood related but you were still loyal to me to the end. Damn be the day I became the Captain of Crow Mercenary Knight, I led many of my men to dead, I'm sorry. Your sacrifices were in vain, we served the wrong causes, the tyranny, the prerogative fat cats. One life of anyone of you worth more than all of them combined. I will fix that, I don't know how to, but I will find a way to fix that. Please rest in peace, my brother in arms. "_

 _Back to The Black Crow:_

 _After rallying the troops under his command, and disclosing the truth that it was the Nasods, nemesis of humanity, who masterminded the plan and pulling the strings to arise once more and this time they have determined to overthrow humanity, The Black Crow's crews and troops were shocked and now determined to follow Raven, now assuming the leader status of The Black Crow, effective breaking away from the Nasod's faction._

 _Meanwhile at Velder, the Velder's troops were still struggling to gain inch by inch of their lost territory. Not because they were having a shortage in manpower, but because the Velder's palace, now occupied by the Glitter demon invaders, was built to be so powerful that one soldier behind the wall can easily resist 10 soldiers outside of it._

Vanessa and other leaders of Velder reluctantly agreed to cooperate with Raven, they made an agreement that Velder would accept to pay The Black Crow's faction a big amount of money to compensate for their loss, the exact amount to be negotiated and needing the sanction of the King of Velder.

"Gearing up yourself boys, we attack at dawn!" - Raven rallied the troops before the attack.

The day after, in the early morning, Glitter troops were astonished at the sight of an enormous flying battleship descending from the clouds. They alerted by ringing the bells and shouting, pulling the sleeping from their beds. But The Black Crow was still took by them by surprised and capitalized on it.

"Broadsides, shoot, over!" - Raven ordered.

KABOOM! Multiples shells was poured down the Glitter's heads indiscriminately to frighten them. Many ducked their heads down and cowering in fear. And this salvo was also the sign for the Velder troops to march to the Southern Gate.

"Now decrease the height by 10 m, rotate 63 degree while reloading, bring down the Southern Gate, over!" - Raven continued to order.

When the preemptive salvos end, the Glitter began to scramble to regroup. Chloe ordered the Glitter and dark elf archers to occupy the watchtowers and high points to ready to shoot at The Black Crow, when it decreased the height for better aiming at Southern Gate. At the same time the gargoyles were mobilized to assault The Black Crow.

"Follow my order, shoot!" - Chloe ordered.

The Black Crow was bombarded by a rain of arrows. The power shield acted as a buffer zone so the arrows couldn't directly damaging the ship, but it has its limit too.

"Black Crow snipers, getting to your positions to intercept the upcoming gargoyles, over! Engineers, loading the Bellow Machine Guns for the gunners, over!" - Raven shouted to the radio.

"Captain! Our Capital ship's shields are down!" - said Tom, by then was second in command.

"So be it! Brace yourself comrades! We will win!" - Raven rallied the troops the last time.

"Incoming! Incoming!" - shouted the panic troops.

"Fire at will, over!" - Raven.

The gargoyles plunged themselves at The Black Crow while spitting deadly fireballs. The machine guns took a big toll on the gargoyles, but the ammo supply was not endless. The snipers had a hard time to shoot and moving around to dodge the fireballs and arrows. The situation was pure chaos!

Suddenly, one officer reported to Raven:

"Boss, the Southern Gate was breached!".

"Good job comrades! Now, drive the ships around, top priority is watchtowers and high places containing enemy's archers, over!" - Raven smiled in relief.

The gargoyles was having a hard time to catch up with the huge ship, and the withering lines of bullets kept them at bay. Meanwhile, the archer's was blasted out everywhere by shelling shots of the ship's howitzers. They panicked and trying to run more than to fight, ignoring the orders of their commanders.

Minutes later the Velder's troops had engaged with the Glitter's footmen. The fight broke out fiercely through the streets, though the Velder's were having the upper hand thanks to the Glitter's archer backs were broken.

"It's time to finish it! Launch the missiles until the Palace's gate is broken, over!" - Raven shouted the order.

The trump card of The Black Crow was its missile payloads. The Palace gate's was brought down in 20 seconds.

"Time to engage! Let us down! Charge!" - Raven left the command of the ship to a senior officer to lead an assault by landing time he had brought with him all the Nasod's robots plus his hardest troops, their mission was to secure the Glitter's hostages: the bureaucracy of Velder, the King and aristocrats.

Just in time, the Glitter planned was that should them lost, they would bring those people to the Demon world through the gateway which they used to invade this palace from within.

"They're there! Let's save them, _for now!_ " - Raven and his soldiers fought and was able to secure the prisoners.

...

The aftermath, the joint force of Black Crow and Velder won. The back of Glitter army was broken so they routed in disorder to escape to their Demon world. Raven didn't prevent them from routing - he didn't want to waste any more troops at all.

Meanwhile, Raven took the King and the aristocrats as hostages. He gave the King the "Bill of service" and told him to sign it. The King reluctantly signed it and comment:

"You're sure to be a mercenary, you can never be a nobleman, like us. That's the difference between _you and me_. Had you not ransomed me like this, I would have granted you a fief and you would have been promoted to be a landlord and be my vassal, the chance of once in a life, and you have wasted it. The commoners never learn!"

"With pleasure, _Your Majesty. But I don't want to be mistaken to be any-one-of-your-kind!_ " - Raven shot angry glares at Alex, making him to bow his head down in trembling...

"Yo kaptin, thanks to you we're rich now, but the quartermaster asked where could we get more supply, the cannon's shell amount has been diminished by half."

"Hamel can." - Raven replied to the errant boy.

"But Hamel was invaded by another demon's army..." - Tom.

"Then let's _liberate_ them too!" - Raven replied, with a mysterious grin on his face.


End file.
